Chapter 3: First words

About the days to come i can’t really say a lot. I spent almost all of my time either with an old rabbit beastman who taught me fighting and the cat nanny. The dragonking was very specific. Either you earn your worth or you are discarded. I definitely would not be discarded. Fuck this. Anyway it seems being an infant again is a blessing in disguise. I learn much faster than anyone else ever could (come on full experience of a 26 year old with the learning ability of a baby. That’s pretty damn scary). It took me less than 2 months to figure out their language. But i kept silent. I mean a 2 months year old talking? Gimmie a break even if this is a different world, that’s stretching it.

Yes it is a different world. I have no idea what happened. I was absolutely sure i am one hundred percent and ultimately DEAD! And then i wake up here… as a baby. Argh. But well i can only make the best out of it. Here is the gist of it: I was born as the 17th son of the dragonking Bar’ath. My mother died when i was born she was a demon of the Ashura tribe seemingly the strongest demon tribe. So i had amazing magic power as well and i was supposed to be super awesome but… as fate just likes to be a dick to me as you might have noticed and will notice as i go on further i had no magic attribute. None. Nada. No Darkness, no light, no lightning, no water, no fire, no earth, no wind. NONE!

Meaning? Well you can use magic for example to strengthen your body. But no matter how much magic you have you will never be able to strengthen your body as much as for example an earth element user who infuses himself with the element of earth. You see everyone or almost everyone (yeah sucks to be me…) has an affinity to an element. He can then train with meditation and other techniques to gather more and more elemental energy in his body. The better your affinity the more elemental energy you can absorb. The more you absorb elemental energy the stronger you get. I think you know where this is going.

So People combine their innate strength with the elemental energy they have gathered over their life. Think of the elemental energy in your body as a balloon. The balloon starts to fill up as you train. The amount that has filled can be used and will replenish when you recover. So what you can obtain permanently with training will give you permanent advantages. And well affinity to an element means how attuned your soul is to the element. The more familiar your soul with an element the easier you can absorb the elemental energy and the fast you can rise your power. Typically everyone has one affinity, two is considered gifted and three or more is considered rare geniuses. Of course always depending on how high the affinity is.

So yeah back to me i have… no affinity whatsoever. I think i mentioned that. So i can use some basic magics: make myself a bit stronger, a bit quicker but the grand spells of the elements, i will never be able to wield them and my father kind of has given up on me. He is stuck on this ideal to mate with other species to creat the ultimate warrior. Or something along those lines.

It seems on this continent there are three kingdoms: humans, demons and beastkin. So humans and demons are at war and beastkin can’t compete with either. How to tip the balance? Yeah make babies with a lot of women. Makes sense. Not. But anyway there is not much i can do. At the moment he has assigned teachers to all his children which amount to 25. We have an age ranging from 6 months up to 4 years old. 5 children were born from human mothers, 10 from different demon tribes and 10 from different beastkin tribes.

It seems that when the youngest child has reached the age of 10 he will put all of us against each other and the last one standing will be raised as his successor. The teacher who taught the successful one would also receive the highest praise and honor. The teachers of the other children though… well you got my dads character right? useless? no mercy! So yeah their lives were on the line as well. So no choice but to do it. Knowing that my time is limited when i was one year old i approached my teacher.

There just isn’t any time so i have to gamble on that there are just unusual things in this world so he doesn’t ask for an explanation. When i was one the youngest child was just born therefore the clock started to tick that very moment. We all knew it. So i had to use the next ten years to the fullest. I had never left my room so i had to wait for an opportunity. One day my nanny left the small dungeon room that only had my crip, a bed for the nanny, a table and a small closet. She asked my teacher to look after me and went out to get some washing done. When she left the room i felt that i had my chance.

A dungeon within dragonking castle, Earth 2016, Vamon 1014 AD

Ka’ahn was sitting on the bed of the small dungeon room that his pupil and the child’s nanny were occupying. He was slightly depressed. His future aspects did not look very bright. He was put in charge of his highness the dragonkings 17th son, born from an Ashura woman. But even though his magic power was astounding he had no affinity! None whatsoever. But that wasn’t the biggest problem. For some reason the child had inherited neither the strength of his father nor the physique of his mother. He looked almost human!

Black hair very dark blue almost black eyes that shone with a strange intelligence. His skin looked almost like scales but it was so subtle you could hardly see it. It gave his skin a very smooth look. Ka’ahn was once the master assassin of his king. His name hardly known because he was so good and effective that his targets never knew what hit them. But the problem was he couldn’t teach his method to this child! It is true that in theory the child could learn it. But it takes at least 15 years to master it to a degree that could give him an edge over his peers. And even if he would learn it the basis of his now extinct order was to teach children from the day they could learn and then accumulate their skill their whole life by either fighting or training over and over. But the foundation is build with magic!

Because even the most talented and most gifted students would only be able to learn those difficult methods at the age of 7. When beastkin start to mature. Even the most gifted genius in history was only able to start at the age of 6. So as to make up for the lacking years in the most important period: Between 0-15, when beastkins learning ability is proofen to be at its highest from instinct and inheritance. Magic was used to accumulate the so called shadow skills.

Shadowskills did not use magic perse it used familiarity with death, the shadows and ones self to accomplish feats normally only reserved for magic grandmasters. You would only need basic magic control to use those skills but painstaking training and above all an iron will to endure. Those who live in the shadows command the shadows. Thats the principle of his old order. But his thoughts were going in circles.

There was no way he could go through with the entire training that involved poisoning for resistance, asassin skill training, combat training, shadow cultivating (basicly sitting in absolut darkness to gather something called shadow energy. Shadow energy is not magic. Its the opposite of magic. Magic is the energy of life even the dark magic springs from death which is in itself part of life. Shadow energy is the opposite, its the energy that takes life. Everything has its opposites. But shadow energy can only be cultivated between the age of 0 and 15 so to make up for the difference of those mentioned 6 to 7 years, magic is used to attract the shadow energy hence speeding up the process.)

Therefore he thought his life to be over. There was no chance that his future disciple could survive the battle to come. He was about to sigh, get up and leave to do what he has been doing ever since he heard that he had been assigned as the 17ths teacher: getting drunk, when he heard it. A quiet high pitched voice saying: “Sensei.” What in the world? Ka’ahn went to the crib and looked into it. Staring back at him were to very intelligent almost black eyes that radiated displeasure. “Sensei please stop looking like a retard and listen. There is not much time. From what i have gathered we are in a pinch. We have the worst starting conditions and the clock started to tick. I heard what you once were: the best. So my question: If we start now, can we do it? Can you teach me? Can you stop feeling sorry for your self get a grip and start doing what needs to be done? Or are you gonna lie down and die like a coward? Because i really have no intention of dying.”

Ka’ahn was flabbergasted. He didn’t know what to say. He was getting lectured and chewed out by one year old infant. He wanted to reply but the only thing that came out was: “you … what and me and now… ?” The baby in the crib rolled his eyes and pushed himself up. “Listen, i have been self conscious since i was born. I have started training my body in secret since i was one week old. Not much to train but i guess every little bit helps. I have one goal: Survival by any means. And i want you to help me so please: can you?” And suddenly Ka’ahn felt a chill running down his spine. Maybe?… Just maybe he wasn’t lost yet? … Had the gods not forsaken him yet?

It seems like the ugly duckling was actually the golden egg. With shining eyes Ka’ahn looked down on the infant: “Are you ready for hell young one?” And he was shocked by the determination that can be seen in the youngsters eyes: “He named me Bar’ath Shadowwing the 17th but i reject him. Him and his name. I name myself Asura in honor of my dead mother and even if i have to claw my way through hell and back i will survive and reclaim my freedom. The freedom to do whatever the hell i want.” Ka’ahn knew at this moment, that a monster has awaken in the 17th dungeon on the first lower level in dragonking castle.